Union demands federal prison leaders be held in contempt after agency ‘openly defies’ court order

The union representing employees at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons accused agency management Tuesday of “openly defying” a court order to reinstate its collective bargaining agreements and called for a federal judge to hold Director William Marshall in contempt.

U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction last week, finding that BOP likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it terminate its contracts with the American Federation of Government Employees’ National Council of Prison Locals, in accordance with President Trump’s 2025 executive orders banning collective bargaining at most federal agencies on national security grounds. Key to that decision was Marshall’s public statement that he made the decision because AFGE is not the “kind of union” he supports, rather than any national security concern.

But a week later, though attorneys for the Trump administration have said the agency has “complied” with the court order, union officials tell another story. In a motion to hold Marshall in contempt and enforce the injunction, they relay reports of wardens across multiple prisons who said they had been instructed to wait, rather than restore unions’ access to their office space or otherwise allow them to resume their representational work.

“On October 1, Jonathan Eperson, president of AFGE Local 612 at USP Big Sandy, reported that the acting warden had told him that the regional director instructed management not to work with the union on anything and to maintain the status quo,” the union wrote. “’At] FCI Manchester, management similarly advised the local union on October 5 that word had been ‘put out’ that management were ‘not to do anything yet.’ Another local president reported to [Council President Brandy Moore] White that his warden said wardens were being verbally instructed not to comply with the court’s order and to ignore it.”

And on Sept. 29, just before the injunction was issued, Marshall met with staff at Federal Correctional Institution Elkton in Ohio and was asked about the potential for the judge to order the collective bargaining agreements be restored.

“I don’t take directives from the court,” Marshall reportedly responded. “I take my orders from the president of the United States.”

One employee told the court that they were called into a disciplinary meeting on Oct. 5, when they were denied access to union representation.

“There ain’t no union,” said the prison’s HR manager. The meeting ended with the employee’s termination.

“These accounts support the conclusion that BOP has continued operating with the CBA terminated, which is contrary to the court’s order that BOP immediately reinstate the CBA,” the union wrote. “The withholding of these arrangements is significant because defendants themselves identified official time, bargaining and union office space as consequences of an injunction requiring reinstatement of the CBA. The continued absence of these benefits, coupled with management’s categorical denials of recognition, proves that the September 2025 termination remains operative in practice.”

Oliver on Wednesday instructed BOP to provide “detailed information” on the effort to reinstate AFGE’s contract by Thursday and scheduled a hearing on the union’s motion for Oct. 13. The Bureau of Prisons told Government Executive that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.